Once upon a time, long before Barbie, Bratz and Beyblade, children were amused by simple things.
Stick a couple of empty snail shells on split-thin bamboo rods, and you have a musical instrument. Punch a hole in the hard shell of a certain fruit and swirl it around, and you have a musical spinning top.

Playtime is limited not by game levels but by creativity and imagination. Yet even these two powerful human traits have not been enough to keep simple toys alive.

Some survive the test of time and are played by children in cities and villages every now and then. Most simply fade away and turn into obscure artifacts such as those found in Gudang Dolanan.

“It’s difficult for traditional toys to compete with modern ones like PlayStation,” said Endi Aras, a cultural event organizer devoted to preserving Indonesia’s games of the past. “But if they are not continuously introduced to children, we will lose part of our cultural heritage.”

Endi’s Gudang Dolanan, which literally means “toy warehouse”, is home to about 30 kinds of traditional toys and 70 types of spinning tops, all of which the 46-year-old collected in the past four years.

Copies of some of his collection are being produced and sold near schools in urban areas. Among these are colorful tin boats that will float and sail if a short fuse at the back is burned. They closely resemble a replica of Watt’s steamboat, but are priced at only Rp 5,000 and have no place inside a toy store.

Tin cans cleaned out and decorated with book covers become animals on wheels that children can drag around; the toy producing a rhythmic sound from a piece of wood beating the can as the wheels turn.

In the capital, only a dozen home workshops still produce the toys, most of which are located in
the Jakarta suburb of Tangerang, Endi said.

Among his collection is a miniature musical set consisting of a small pentatonic gamelan set, a tambourine-like instrument from wood and tin and a similar one made of hard fruit shells.

“This set is used by Balinese storyteller Made Taro when he performs. They provide dramatic background sounds but are made of the simplest materials,” he explained.

Others required more adventure to obtain. While on a trip to West Java’s Cirebon, Endi found something that he played with during his own childhood: a tin spinning top.

Unlike conventional cone-shaped wooden spinning tops, this shows evidence of a more creative streak. Standing no higher than 5 centimeters, it is a colorful tin biker, resembling a racer straining to reach the finish line.

“You roll the rope around the wheel and pull it,” Endi said, demonstrating how the toy works. Pulling strongly propels the tiny biker forward and keeps it moving, just like a speed racer.

It takes time to learn, as Endi’s youngest son, Lintang Abiyoga, found after trying out the toy.
“It’s difficult,” the fourth grader said. “I don’t want to play with this.”

Some, if not most, traditional toys indeed require more than two thumbs and a joystick. A variety of spinning tops feature in Endi’s collection, each of which requires strength, skill and strategy.

Perhaps the most universally known toy, spinning tops can be played with individually or in a group where children — or even adults — compete to keep their tops spinning the longest or to hit their opponents’ tops.

“You have to be able to measure how strong a throw you’ll give the top. Too weak and it won’t spin, too strong a throw will send it out of the boundaries,” said Aji Saestu, demonstrating how to spin a 5-kilogram saucer-shaped spinning top from East Lombok, Nusa Tenggara.
Well, this one definitely is not child’s play.

Apiong in Maluku, panggal in Banten, mawon in Papua: Whatever the name, each region has its own traditional spinning top.

The stunning variety of spinning tops in Indonesia is a simple, if surprising, reflection of the country’s rich cultural diversity, showing they are about more than games.

Ranging from heart-shaped wooden tops to small bamboo and nyamplung (Calophyllum inophyllum) shell tops that make a sound when spun, each top has its own story, sure to make a good read if well documented.

The most interesting? From the Dayak tribe, said Endi.

Legend has it that the spinning top known as Bapangka by the Dayak Kanaytn tribe is a divine being that oversees the forest. The tree from which it is made is the symbol of Earth’s fertility and is among the species that produces food for locals.

Thus, for the tribe, the spinning top belongs not only to their leisure time, but also to rituals at the start of the planting season and before harvesting. They even reserve a special place to spin tops in their rice barn.

The fact that it’s a game played in almost every province in the country prompted the Indonesian Spinning Top Community to propose the traditional toy be entered in the National Sports Week (PON).

The group, founded in 2007, has started its annual Spinning Top Festival where top-makers and players are invited from all over the country to display their tops and show their ability.

A spinning top is only one of several toys that have a local flavor in each province. The yoyo, the two connected disks spun on a finger’s throw of the string rolled between them, is another such toy.
“This one is found in Demak [Central Java],” Endi said, pointing to a box full of yoyos painted in red and purple and decorated with a flower pattern.

Another box contains of yoyos from Yogyakarta, their shape rounder than the one from Demak.

For toy treasurers such as Endi, the hunt for traditional toys is more fun than playing with them. And it’s perhaps a treasure hunt that will never end; after all, Indonesia has at least 750 types of traditional toys across the country, according to the culture ministry.

But, like it or not, the toys that our great-great-grandparents cherished sometimes cannot compete with modern gadgets and electronic toys, leaving the traditional toys languishing as remnants of romanticism that fathers cherish more than their sons.

“Dad, come on,” said Lintang, showing his impatience as he waited for his father to help turn on the PlayStation.

His father was busy, showing people the beloved traditional toys of his childhood.

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